Travels Through Mecca
In 2013 and 2015, I was fortunate to go on some extraordinary journeys, thanks to my incredibly loving and generous in-laws. Both very adventurous and seasoned travelers, they’ve explored some of our world’s most interesting places and in 2013, they took us on a 3-week, mind blowing trip to Israel and Jordan. This was one of my most life-changing experiences and, as if this wasn’t enough, 2 years later we traveled again, visiting 4 countries - Italy, Switzerland, Bosnia and finally the UK. Amazing and again, life-changing!
First of all, Israel is an absolute must for anyone who’s curious about our collective human history. I could write an entire piece just on this one trip. I’ll just say this - GO. It will change you forever. What an incredible country and people. I loved it. And Jerusalem had such an intense impact on me. To actually be in the old city, to walk its alleys where Christians, Jews and Muslims all call their own spiritual center - I was totally in awe and I can’t wait to go back. Completely fascinating.
The Jordan portion of the trip was brief but again, totally other worldly. From crossing the no-man’s land border between Israel and Jordan, to the long, fascinating drive across the Jordanian desert, to walking through the ancient city of Petra, it was exciting, at times scary and jaw-dropping. Petra is hard to put into words, on so many levels. To see those awesome ruins up close, I was mesmerized by what these people built, with so little. You could actually feel their immense struggles.
Unknowingly, it was from these travels that launched the idea for my debut album, Travels. On our flight between Bosnia and the UK, I opened up Garage Band and what came out of me was the beginnings of the lead song for the album, “Travels Though Mecca”. I started messing around with a bunch of loops and each time I found a cool sound, I began layering and building the song structure. The song’s title was inspired by my experiences in both Israel and Jordan and the loops I found, reminded me of those places. Little did I know that it would later become the catalyst for my first solo record, which I finally released in 2018.
“Travels Though Mecca” opened up a new world to me of writing instrumental world music. Even though I began this song in 2015, it wasn’t until a few years later that I would end up returning to complete it. As with a few of the other songs on the album, I began them in Garage Band but later brought them into Logic Pro X. This song’s birth on that flight combines those original loops with various ethnic percussion instruments, blending world cultures sonically. The song begins with me playing an Africa Talking drum, which is then echoed by an African Udu drum. It’s followed by a synth loop pattern, a shaker part, then adding a bass loop and another Synth loop using an Oud sound (a Middle Eastern guitar). The song progresses with atmospheric keyboard parts, building to the dueling solo I played, a conversation between the djembe and doumbek. I played a keyboard mallet solo, then circled back to the intro & main theme and finally the outro…which I book-ended the song, returning back to the intro drum parts, as the song’s finale.
Jump ahead to present day. Just over 2 years after releasing Travels, we were on another trip with my in-laws…this time in the High Desert of Southern California - an area we really love. 2020 just came to a close (thankfully). It was New Year’s Day 2021 and my wife’s birthday, so we spent it in gorgeous Joshua Tree National Park. It was a full moon…we were there at dusk and I managed to capture some eerie, beautiful footage of the moon as it rose over the park’s mountains. It almost appeared as if it was chasing us through the desert…and then, it came to me. This is exactly what I’d been waiting for, to inspire a music video for “Travels Through Mecca”. It was perfect. It reminded me of our treks in Israel and Jordan and, it brought me back.
Interestingly, there are only a few places in the world where Joshua Trees grow – in Southern California’s High Desert and…
In Israel.
(click on the image below to view the video)
